At first, the murder seemed to have all the markings of an attempted carjacking. When Los Angeles police officers reached the scene on the dark Boyle Heights street July 26, they found affluent software designer Bruce Cleland lying in a pool of blood across the street from his new black 4Runner. His distraught wife, Rebecca, said she had been knocked unconscious when she got out of the vehicle to check the tailgate and awoke to the gruesome sight.

James Newman Hood sits in a quaint, ornate courtroom, rocking slowly in his wooden chair, as lawyers and witnesses chart his descent from the golden existence and happy family life he once knew to the prospect of financial ruin and a life behind bars.

The Los Angeles city attorney's office filed a criminal complaint Monday against a Tarzana man accused of selling illegal cable converter boxes on the Internet. Peter Mulder Johnston, 43, could face a maximum sentence of one year in jail and a $250,000 fine if convicted. Arraignment is scheduled for March 11. The city attorney's office alleges Johnston offered the "black boxes" on the World Wide Web, using the name "The Original Cable Guy."

The trustee running bankrupt Newport Beach home builder Baldwin Co. has sued the firm's owners, brothers Alfred and James Baldwin, claiming they want to resurrect their development empire by wresting the rights to thousands of acres of valuable land from the business that bears their name. Bankruptcy trustee David Gould argues that the brothers are jeopardizing his efforts to nurse Baldwin Co. through a reorganization and repay more than $250 million in debts.

Gene Jelks, a former Alabama football player, says he was paid thousands of dollars by coaches and school boosters during his career with the Crimson Tide. In a copyright story in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Jelks, a cornerback and captain on Alabama's 1989 Southeastern Conference championship team, charged that: "I was bought and sold to the university." He said money was funneled to him and his mother while he was still in high school to obligate him to play for the Crimson Tide.

The University of Minnesota women's gymnastics coach was fired Tuesday after she accidentally gave members of her team a videotape that included sex scenes involving her and her husband, an assistant coach, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Katalin Deli was fired by Chris Voelz, women's athletic director, who said Deli's contract will end effective June 30. Gabor Deli resigned, effective June 15.

Northrop Grumman Corp. has agreed to pay $1.4 million to settle a whistle-blower lawsuit that accused the defense contractor of overcharging the U.S. Air Force for B-2 bomber instruction and repair manuals, federal prosecutors said Friday. In the latest allegations of overcharging on the $44-billion bomber program, a former employee accused Century City-based Northrop of violating the federal Truth in Negotiations Act by inflating cost estimates on the manuals.

A James Bond-style ultrasonic gun disguised as a pair of binoculars was used to stun a top thoroughbred during a race, and could have become the key tool in a massive drug and betting conspiracy, a British court was told Tuesday. Defense attorney Jonathan Goldberg said the high-pitched sound from the gun caused the thoroughbred, Ile de Chypre, to veer suddenly and throw jockey Greville Starkey as they were heading for victory at Ascot racecourse on June 16, 1988.

While China is making veiled threats about boycotting the Summer Olympics because of the possibility of Taiwanese leaders attending the Games in Atlanta, it has a potentially more damaging situation at home. Two Chinese swim coaches working in Thailand said the country has adopted the East German drug program, the first public acknowledgment of widespread doping in a country that won 12 of 16 gold medals in women's swimming at the 1994 World Championships in Rome.

QUESTION: My friend recently signed a rental agreement she thought was month to month, but in fact is a one-year lease. Because she does not speak English, the landlord spoke with her in Spanish. The landlord showed the unit to my friend, asked her to sign a rental agreement that was written in English, and had her pay a deposit. My friend feels that the landlord misled her, and wants to terminate her tenancy with a 30-day notice. What can she do?